There is a vast difference between something that is conceptually simple or easy to understand, and something that’s simple to execute upon and implement. And if we have any hope of truly instilling a lasting shift to a more social business model, it’s really important to understand that difference.
The idea of making people, systems, and relationships among them more symbiotic and collaborative is a relatively simple one to grasp. The advantages are somewhat easy to understand as well, on the surface. (Working together, more open communication = positive impact). We talk about these advantages a lot, and the skepticism around social business among most reasonable people is less about resisting those ideas as it is being daunted by the breadth and depth needed for their implementation.
That’s because if our companies truly are ecosystems that include employees, customers, partners, investors, and all the varied systems that connect them, changing one thing – even at a surface level – can have dramatic implications in other areas of the business.
Take our beloved “social customer service” for example.
The simple statement: just get all your customer service representatives listening and responding using social media. Give them the tools and let them loose. Easy enough to say, right?
Well, first you have an immediate budget and systems logistics challenge. How to get all of those people connected to the proper systems in order to receive the information from social media, say through a central listening platform that everyone uses? That has implications for IT (security, standardization, systems integration etc) and procurement (cost management and centralized purchase/contract management) for starters.
Then you have the training and education issue. That centers upon how to get current customer service reps integrating this new function into their existing workflows and systems as well as helping them understand why they should add this to their workload to begin with. (Because we all ought to know that long term adoption of anything new requires the adopters to feel bought into the outcome and understand how it either makes their jobs easier or more valuable or both.) Then you’ve got to work it into training and on boarding programs for new customer service representatives, which touches HR and employee education, and might even carry over into more technological territory if you need to deploy things like online learning systems.
Process and workflow issues have to be revisited simultaneously: how does answering the call of social media impact a day in the life of a customer service rep? Can one person handle the additional volume? Does something else have to give? Are there guidelines, processes, escalation procedures, handbooks or other things that need to be revised? How does this change management expectations? If you’re doing any outsourced customer service via something like a call center, how can you be sure your standards are reflected in this new medium, and that your representatives understand how the social media picture fits into the overall customer service experience?
Take the workflow to another level, and look at this as a business intelligence shift. You’re gathering all this new information now based on social media, so it needs to be integrated into your customer records and CRM systems. Your support people need to be able to be alerted to issues, and your customer service/social media people need to be able to follow up after resolution. Your product folks need to be notified of issues pertaining to defects, quality, or even the raving compliments of your biggest fans so they can take that into account when making product decisions. Executives need to see the impact that social media is having. Marketing and PR need to know how their messaging needs adjustment based on social media feedback. There’s most certainly more, but you get the idea. Information flow will change, perhaps drastically.
Alignment becomes important if there are other areas of the business also doing social media. How does customer service work together with marketing, PR, R&D, sales, and anyone else that’s using and leveraging social media, either individually or “officially” on behalf of the company? Who helps guide the overarching strategy, and how do distinct groups ensure that they’re communicating with one another about what’s working, what isn’t, and where they’re inextricably linked?
Accountability practices will have to change, including what you report on and to whom, and how and where you capture and keep information. What about getting relevant points of data to the people that can make decisions based upon them? Is it really as simple as adding a social media line item to existing reports? Or do you need to think through the impact points of that social customer service and find new ways to demonstrate how it correlates to internal efficiency, customer experience, and internal culture?
Then there’s arguably one of the more important implications: cultural impact. What happens now when your customer service people are tasked with making real-time decisions about how to respond to social media issues online, and in public? How do they feel about having that responsibility? How do other departments feel about those people having such a visible impact on brand reputation and customer experience, especially if they, too, are involved in the overall social strategy? What happens when what you hear and learn in social media through your customers isn’t in sync what you’ve instilled as your company vision for ages? What happens when the executives start to grow concerned about things like scale, management, or the dreaded investment return? What if they’re reticent to begin with?
And that’s just the generalized stuff from the top of my head that most businesses share, never mind all the complexities and nuances that come along with each unique organization, their people, and their customers.
Do I believe social is something that really is an imperative today? Yep, I do. Do I believe that companies are going to need to take some steps into uncharted territory and sort it out as they go sometimes? Yep, I believe that too. After all, change is something that requires developing the new in parallel with managing the current. You can’t just put your business on hold while you embark on new adventures.
But the idea that we should “just do” social media, or “just be” a social business, and that it’s as simple as connecting people and ideas and systems and galloping off to the races is shortsighted and naive at best, and irresponsibly ignorant at worst. Doing something new amid a business ecosystem necessarily has an impact on the things that are connected to it. Failing to consider that can be detrimental to success.
Creating and shepherding change is not just an adventure, it’s a responsibility. Social business’ future is depending on its advocates to keep their eyes on the horizon but their feet firmly planted in reality. It’s a delicate balance, but it’s critical to the long term credibility and survival of the work that we so believe in.
Totally agree. People who think “oh social is quick and easy” typically aren’t ones that you need to take advice on. At my old company, I worked for 2 years to get our business more social (beyond just setting up a blog and Twitter account) and making it a key part of our sales process. I would say it was going to take at least another year for that transformation to take full force.
This is a fantastic post, Amber, thank you for your insights. In implementing a customer service process on Twitter at my company, I have experienced many of these challenges first hand. Adding a new channel to an existing organization is hard. I have found that the biggest challenge, though, is not in selecting tools or implementing process, but in teaching the etiquette and nuances that are unique to social. Being an excellent customer service rep does not always translate to understanding how social media in particular works. Sometimes you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks, if you will. I find that staffing a social customer service team has to start with identifying the team members who already have an inherent understanding of how social works. There is a cadence and a level of customer expectation that is different from all the other channels we already have in place. Making sure that your internal training and education focuses on these nuances is crucial to setting your team up for success. Thanks again for such a thoughtful and concise look at all the other elements that are involved. Cheers!
Insightful article. I hope you write some more about tackling each of the points you brought up. How does a small or mid size business go about operationalizing these broad changes? To do this right seems truly overwhelming for those without dollars for consultants or change management teams.
“Accountability practices will have to change.” Yep, and I’m an expert on that.
http://www.lindagalindo.com
Well that’s a pretty blatant link drop, Linda. I’ll let others decide what to make of that.
Getting my business more social is truly challenging. I couldn’t agree more with this post. Social media marketing is easier said than done but the real thing is it needs a lot of integration and full blown strategy for the social business to make sense. Excellent write up.
Thanks for this insightful post. I am studying the Fourth Revolution as it unfolds. Organizations and institutions will have a hard time to adapt because although it looks simple to get into the Collaborative Age, it is not easy. And the ecosystem of inter-relationships makes it even more difficult to implement as a single organization. I like very much your practical advice and will disseminate it on my blog!
Social business is still in its infancy, but fast becoming important both to large and small businesses. Unless companies communicate well internally,they will not be able to communicate its brands effectively to the public. Businesses must align their core goals and objectives in cross-enterprise collaboration and create a socially integrated organizational blueprint that focuses on people and culture. It’s focus need to be on people and culture.